Volkswagen CEO Martin Wintekorn told a German newspaper that they intend to increase its global staff by more than 10 percent in 2012. Currently Volkswagen employs 449,000 employees worldwide, but Winterkorn believes it’s entirely possible for VW to pack 500,000 in full by the end of 2012. That’s a whole lot of Volkswagenites.

It’s no surprise though, as Volkswagen has become quite the aggressive company under Winterkorn’s leadership. While other German competitors such as BMW are taking a conservative approach by saying their employee count will depend on how business goes, VW has their eyes set on rising to the top of the automotive world by 2018. By cutting costs and boosting profits, Winterkorn hopes that VW will have a global vehicle sales of more than 10-million units and a profit margin of more than 8-percent.

One of Volkswagen’s main competitive advantages is their modular car-production system. It allows them to reduce costs, production and development time while making it possible to introduce a greater variety of models and technologies. Only time will tell though whether or not this will really be the driving force in making Volkswagen one of the top automotive manufacturers in the world.